Having lived in a compound with lots of other dogs, 11-month-old Chase is understandably overwhelmed with excitement when he see other dogs. He has never learnt restraint and goes crazy if he can’t get to them. Having only lived in a compound with other dogs, Chase is overwhelmed and very Read more…
It’s not surprising that two-year-old Moose suffers from lack of confidence around people. Considering his background as a puppy born on the streets of Romania, he’s doing great. They didn’t have him until he was sixteen weeks old.
No socialisation will have taken place during the crucial early weeks and what encounters he did have with people were very likely scary ones and now hard-wired into his brain.
I rang the doorbell bell. Betty barked – as most dogs do. I sat down, she barked at me. She continued to be vocal on and off for most of the time I was there.
At first I thought she wanted to chase me away, but it soon became apparent that she was excited by my presence in a friendly sort of away. They seldom have callers and to Betty I was therefore a major event. If I touched her she went quiet but then would bark at me for more when I stopped.
I couldn’t however get on with my job and pet her all the time. By doing so I was merely reinforcing here for being loudly vocal. If we had put her in another room she would have continued to bark and I didn’t want her even more stressed. (more…)
I found Dexter friendly, but careful. He tries to please – almost like he’s scared not to.
He is a three-year-old mix of mostly Labrador and Lurcher or Greyhound. They have had him for just three months.
When out of the house fear takes over and then he’s unable to take notice of them.
Walking by the roads Dexter simply feels too unsafe so he’s on high alert, panting and pulling. Twice a day he pulls desperately to the nearby field where they can let him off lead. Once free, he’s a different dog. He charges about, happy, and will once more listen to them.
Dexter feels so unsafe only when he’s on lead. If he sees another dog, even at some distance, he starts to bark. The frantic barking then changes into a high-pitched cry. He then will jump up on them, almost hugging them, scared and appeasing at the same time, like expecting something very bad to happen. (more…)
Poor little Teddy is now on the defensive. He is very small, weighing only about 5kg. The three-year-old is a cross between a Shih Tsu and, surprisingly, a Border Collie – they saw his mother. The friendly and confident little dog has had two setbacks recently. Other dogs had never Read more…
In the reality TV game show ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ a young woman is locked in a tank of snakes. She is terrified of snakes. A man who’s not a good swimmer is shut in a dark tunnel leading to a deep tank with scary water Read more…
I have had a lovely visit with five-month-old Shih Tzu female litter-mates Hattie and PJ and their delightful family, starting my ‘puppy parenting’ with them. This initial visit is to make sure the basics are in place, plan the way forward and pre-empt potential future problems. Potential problems with littermates are well documented but not inevitable. These Read more…
I was welcomed at the door by two very friendly and seemingly confident little dogs – Bud, a Yorkie age two and his five-month-old son, Bentley, a Yorkie mix already double the size of Bud. Bud, however, was strangely jumpy and startled by anything that might make an unexpected sound, Read more…
Beautiful Indie is another Shepherd-type dog that is reactive to people – particularly people coming to his house. He was abandoned as a puppy of three months old on the streets of Romania and spent the next three months in kennels – crucial months in his development. The reason he Read more…
Ralph barks at people and dogs going past his house, spending most of the day sitting on the back of the sofa by the window on lookout duty. They have deliberately left a gap in their hedge at the back of the garden which overlooks the park, so he can Read more…